A39669:2082
The Method of Grace
The method of grace, in bringing home the eternal redemption contrived by the Father, and accomplished by the Son through the effectual application of the spirit unto God's elect, being the second part of Gospel redemption : wherein the great mystery of our union and communion with Christ is opened and applied, unbelievers invited, false pretenders convicted, every mans claim to Christ examined, and the misery of Christless persons discovered and bewailed / by John Flavell ...The method of grace, in bringing home the eternal redemption contrived by the Father, and accomplished by the Son through the effectual application of the spirit unto God's elect, being the second part of Gospel redemption : wherein the great mysterie of our union and communion with Christ is opened and applied, unbelievers invited, false pretenders convicted, every mans claim to Christ examined, and the misery of Christless persons discovered and bewailed / by John Flavell ...
London: printed by M. White for Francis Tyton, 1681
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Secondly, The first thing that God created in the natural world was light, Gen. 1. 3. and the first thing which God createth in the new Creation is the light of spiritual knowledge, Col. 3. 10. And have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that Created him.
Thirdly, Creation is out of nothing: it requires no preexistent matter: it doth not bring one thing out of another, but something out of nothing: it gives a being to that which before had no being. So it is also in the new Creation; 1 Pet. 2. 9, 10. who hath called you out of darkness, into his marvellous light; which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy: the work of grace is not educed out of the power, and principles of nature; but is a pure work of creation. The heathen Philosophers could neither understand, nor acknowledge the creation of the world, because that notion was repugnant to this maxim of reason, ex nihilo nihil fit, out of nothing, nothing can be made: thus did they insanire cum ratione, befool themselves with their own reasonings: and after the same manner some great pretenders to reason among us, voting it an absurdity to affirm, that the work of grace is not virtually, and potentially contained in nature; the new Creation in the old.
Thirdly, Creation is out of nothing: it requires no preexistent matter: it doth not bring one thing out of another, but something out of nothing: it gives a being to that which before had no being. So it is also in the new Creation; 1 Pet. 2. 9, 10. who hath called you out of darkness, into his marvellous light; which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy: the work of grace is not educed out of the power, and principles of nature; but is a pure work of creation. The heathen Philosophers could neither understand, nor acknowledge the creation of the world, because that notion was repugnant to this maxime of reason, ex nihilo nihil fit, out of nothing, nothing can be made: thus did they insanire cum ratione, befool themselves with their own reasonings: and after the same manner some great pretenders to reason among us, voting it an absurdity to affirm, that the work of grace is not virtually, and potentially contained in nature; the new Creation in the old.